The Reign of Law

lapped low and straight toward the black wood beyond the southern horizon. No sunset radiance streamed across the wid

-ends. Several yards to windward, where the dust and refuse might not settle on it, lay the pile of gray-tailed hemp,-the coarsest of man's work, but finished as conscientiously as an art. From the warming depths of this, rose the head and neck of a common shepherd dog, his face turned uneasily but patiently toward the worker. Whatever that master sho

for her children of the soil among that people. Striding rapidly back to his brake, the clumsy five-slatted device of the pioneer Kentuckians, he raised the handle and threw the armful of stalks crosswise between the upper and the lower blades. Then swinging the handle high,

d for him to come out to work. Though by noon it had moderated, it was cold still; but out of the warmer currents of the upper atmosphere, which was now the noiseless theatre of great changes going forward unshar

not be allowed to get wet. The dog leaped out and stood to one side, welcoming the end of the afternoon labor and the idea of returning home. Not many minutes were required for the hasty baling, and David so

and far away through the twilight, lower down, he saw the flash of a candle already being carried about in the kitchen. At the opposite end of the house the glow of firelig

h dubious forethought of to-morrow's weather. The raindrops had ceased to fall, but he was too good a countryman not to foresee unsettled conditions. The dog standing before him and watching his face, uttered an uneasy whine as he noted that question addressed to the clouds: at intervals dur

e said, "are

mained gazing toward that great light-into the stillness of it-the loneliness-the eternal peace. On his rugged face an answering light was kindled, the glory of a spiritual passion, the flame of immortal things alive in his soul. More akin to him seemed that beacon fire of the sky-more nearly his real pathway home appeared that di

arms about the hemp, lifted it to his shoulder. "Come, Captain," he called to his comp

ndation, ye sai

r faith in His

l not hurt the

nsume and thy g

now he sang the melody only. A little later, as though he had no right to indulge himself even in this, it died on the air; and only the